Higher Learning

by Clare Kauter

  “What is it?” he asked, turning to look at me quizzically.

  “It’s Elliot,” I said, recounting the story Chelsea had told me. Tim listened in silence.

  “Do you think she was telling the truth?”

  “I think she believes the story,” I said. “I can’t say for sure whether it’s true or not, but he did date me when he was studying to be a teacher and I was fourteen.”

  Tim looked disgusted. “When you put it like that, I definitely believe that story and I want him arrested before Gracie goes to high school.”

  I sighed. There wasn’t really any point in defending Elliot anymore. He was everything people he said he was and possibly worse.

  “Abhati told me that he tutors her as well,” I said.

  “And had he ever behaved inappropriately towards her?”

  I shook my head. “No, but she said he only ever came over when her parents were there.”

  Tim frowned. “Right. What are you getting at?”

  “Maybe he’s the dealer. If he went there today while her parents were out...”

  Tim nodded. “That’s plausible, but we don’t really have any evidence that he’s involved with the drugs.”

  I sighed. “I know. I just want to hurry up and solve this already before I get fired.” I paused. “Tim...”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you know Adam’s brother?”

  “Eli? Yeah.” He frowned at me. “Do you?”

  I nodded. “I met him when I went to the clinic the other day. That’s why Adam’s so invested in this case, right?”

  Tim paused and then nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Thought so,” I said. After a moment, I sighed. “What do I do, Tim? If this kind of thing can happen to the one person I thought I knew, then I have no idea where to go from here.”

  Tim put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. “Go home, eat snacks, cuddle Arnold, sleep.”

  “I would, but I have stacks of homework to do,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe I’ll call Adam and see if he wants to fire me before I do it, just in case.”

  Tim laughed and gave me a sympathetic look. “Come on. Abhati’s not going to be awake for a while anyway. Let’s get you home.”

  I nodded and Tim led me back out to the car. “You going to be OK?” he asked as he pulled up outside my house.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Arnold will look after me.”

  Once inside, I called to Arnold to help me carry supplies up to the bedroom from the kitchen. Stacey and Lea were both out at the moment, which was lucky because I had a sneaking suspicion they might have judged my next actions. I balanced as many family-sized bags of chips on Arnold’s back as I could and put one in her mouth for her to carry while I juggled tubs of ice cream in various flavours, dips, crackers, a tub of leftover mashed potato and a bunch of bananas. (The bananas and potato were for Arnold – I felt like a bad parent when I fed her too much junk.)

  We carried the food upstairs – Arnold doing a remarkable job of keeping the chips balanced on her back – and jumped into my bed. Well, she jumped into my bed. I put on my pyjamas before joining her. I peeled her a banana and then got stuck into my choc-chip almond milk ice cream, wondering if I’d completely misjudged Abhati. Surely not. I couldn’t be that wrong about someone, could I? But what was the alternative?

  Tim had thought my idea that someone had intentionally killed Gabby and tried to kill Abhati was stupid – and OK, it kind of was – but it sort of made sense. One girl overdosing was a tragedy. Two was suspicious. Abhati didn’t have a job – how could she afford a drug habit? And after one of your friends died of an overdose, surely you’d be a little more cautious about your own drug use. But why would anyone want them dead?

  The only person I could think of that might have a motive for murder was Elliot, but even then I could only understand why he’d kill Gabby. She’d told Chelsea that Elliot had tried to get her into bed – she was a threat to him. But what did he have against Abhati? She told me herself he’d never done anything weird around her. She didn’t know he was a creep – in fact, she’d seen kind of confused when I brought it up. What threat did she pose to Elliot?

  My phone began to buzz and I glanced at the screen. James. I answered.

  “Hey, I just heard the news,” he said. “Are you OK?”

  “Yeah,” I lied. “Arnold’s looking after me.”

  “I’m supervising an excursion out of town at the moment and I’m not going to get back until around nine o’clock tonight, but I’ll come and see you as soon as I can.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Are Stace and Lea there?”

  “Not at the moment,” I replied. “But they should be home soon.” That was kind of a lie – I had no idea when they’d be home, but I didn’t want James to worry about me.

  “OK. Call me if you need me, alright?”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. “Get back to supervising your other children.”

  “Bye, sweetie.”

  “Bye.”

  I texted Lea and Stacey to see when they’d be home. Stacey was going to be at her parents’ until after dinner and Lea didn’t mention where she was and said she wouldn’t be home until late. Ordinarily I would have been intrigued by that message, but today my mind was on other things. Right, so Arnold and I were alone. That was OK. We’d be fine. I pulled her in for a hug and fed her some mashed potato.

  By six in the evening, the sun was down and I’d finished the ice cream. Arnold and I were lying on the bed with distended bellies, groaning from having eaten too much. The doorbell rang and I strongly considered not answering, but then I considered that it could be James getting back early, so I waddled downstairs. When I pulled open the door, however, I did not find James standing before me. Instead, I found Elliot.

  Oh, fuck.

  He held up a brown paper bag. “Hungry?” he asked. “I brought dinner.”

  Laced with meth? (Was that even possible?) “Great,” I said. “Come in. What did you bring?”

  “Wine,” he said, passing the bottle to me. “Burger and chips for me. I got you a salad.”

  “Why on earth would you do that?” I asked, genuinely baffled. Who would come over for dinner and bring their host the worst thing on any menu? Even Arnold hated salads. I mean, I wasn’t hungry now, but salad wasn’t going to make good leftovers.

  “Oh, I assumed you were on a diet,” he said. “You’ve lost so much weight since we dated.”

  I wondered how bad the consequences would be if I glassed him with the wine bottle.

  “I, uh...”

  “It’s a compliment,” he said. “Skinny suits you.”

  And a broken nose suits you, I thought, but before I had a chance to respond he’d pushed past me and headed for the dining room where he sat down at my table.

  “I like that you’ve started wearing contacts when you’re in public, too,” he said. “Those glasses are so dorky.”

  Had I ever thought this guy was attractive? I heard the sound of Arnold’s hooves coming down the stairs and wondered if I should put her in the spare bedroom so she wouldn’t have to interact with Elliot. Why was he here? Was he trying to date me or murder me? That wasn’t exactly something I could come out and ask. At least with the salad it seemed unlikely he’d hidden meth in it somehow.

  I took out two glasses and poured some wine for each of us. Did I have any sleeping pills? Maybe I could beat him at his own game – drug him, put him back in his car and lock all the doors to my house. I decided against it, partly because I wasn’t sure how many pills I could put in the wine without him being able to taste it or without it being so many it would kill him. I’d just have to put him to sleep with my conversation instead.

  “So,” I said, “what’s up? Why are you here?”

  “I would have thought that was obvious,” he said through a mouthful of burger. Some barbecue sauce dripped down his chin as he spoke and I tried to mask my disgust.

  I shook my head.
“You may need to elaborate. When you swallow, I mean. There’s no rush.”

  He continued to speak through his food and I leaned back in my chair in an attempt to evade the errant pieces of burger that escaped his mouth as he spat out his response.

  “We have unfinished business.” He swallowed and I thought briefly that I might get a reprieve from looking at his pre-digested food, but then he shoved a handful of chips in his mouth and continued. “Since we can’t date in public, I thought I’d come here.”

  I was conflicted. In terms of the case, it was probably a good idea to keep him onside. I didn’t want him to know that I’d heard rumours about him or that there was a part of me that suspected he’d somehow had a hand in Gabby’s death and Abhati’s overdose. But right now, I wanted him out of my house and far away from me. He was repulsive and potentially dangerous, and Arnold and I were home alone. I thought that maybe I should message Tim, but then I remembered that both of my phones were still upstairs in my bedroom. There was no way I could get up there without it being incredibly obvious.

  Elliot shoved the last bit of his burger in his mouth and washed it down with the final handful of chips and a gulp of wine.

  “Well,” he said.

  “Well?”

  “Now that dinner’s out of the way...”

  My eyes widened in horror. “Uh, Elliot...”

  He stood and made his way around the table towards me. I jumped to my feet, still trying to look casual, not wanting to exacerbate the situation.

  “Charlie,” he said. “I always knew that you and I were meant to be together.”

  “Really?” I said. “Because we broke up a long time ago. I thought you would have been over it by now.”

  He moved closer towards me and I backed away. He laughed. “There’s no point in playing hard to get now, Charlie. I know you too well.”

  “I’m not so sure that’s true,” I said, my voice an octave higher than normal. I kept backing away until I bumped into a wall. Shit. He closed in.

  “You’re not like those other girls.”

  “What other girls?” I said.

  “Those stuck up girls who didn’t want anything to do with me, no matter how nice I was to them.” Oh, goodie. I was getting the ‘nice guy’ speech. “You always understood. You liked me and hated McKenzie, because you could see through him. All those other girls only cared about looks. But look at me now.”

  It seemed to me that I’d just found the kind of person who would go on a cheerleader murdering spree. In your face, Timothy Carter.

  I fought back a scowl. “Yes, you have blossomed somewhat.”

  “Kiss me,” he said, leaning closer.

  “Oh, Elliot,” I said. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. It’s just happening so fast. I might need to –”

  “Are you fucking serious?” he said, suddenly furious.

  Oh fuck.

  “Um...”

  “You pushed me away the other day at school,” he said. “I thought you were different, but you’re just like the others. You don’t care about nice guys at all.”

  “I do, I do,” I said quickly. “I just don’t want to spoil this by moving too fast.”

  “It’s not going to spoil it,” he said. “Now kiss me.”

  He leaned in again, his eyes shut. I wrinkled my nose. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t take one for the team, not with this repugnant specimen of a meninist. Taking a deep breath, I pushed him away again.

  His jaw dropped open and he glared at me, eyes radiating pure fury for a second before he raised his fist and punched me in the face. My head bounced off the wall behind me and I blinked a couple of times, dazed, before the pain hit. Then it came and my eyes began to well. I was so distracted by the pain that I barely fought back as Elliot pushed me up against the wall and came in for another kiss. Just before his lips made contact, he leapt backwards, screaming and cursing and clutching his leg. I looked down. Arnold was standing at my feet with blood on her snout. She’d bitten him – and done a decent job by the looks of it. That was what it took to break me out of my stupor.

  “Come on,” I hissed at her and we ran to the front door, down the steps and out onto the street.

  “Charlie!” Elliot called behind me. “Come back! I’m sorry.”

  Really? He thought that was going to work? Oh, you’re sorry? Then I’ll just forget the fact that you punched me in the face and I only managed to get away from you because I had my pig as backup. Here I come! Let’s get married. You seem like such a catch.

  As Arnold and I ran down the street in the freezing winter night, shivering, I wondered where to go. Obviously I couldn’t go home. Normally I would have gone to McKenzie’s house, but he wouldn’t be there for a couple of hours and I didn’t want to be alone somewhere. I was wearing cotton pyjamas and I didn’t even have shoes on so I was probably going to get frostbite. The blood dripping down my face was warm at first but then it cooled and I began to wonder if it would freeze in icicles on my face.

  Still running, I tried to formulate a plan. I heard a car start up down the street and realised that Elliot was going to drive down the road to find me.

  “Arnold, quick,” I whispered, turning right and leading her down a side street. I needed to figure out where I was going and quick. I had the advantage at the moment, but I needed to get out of here. I mentally calculated which friend’s home was closest to mine. Headlights were coming up the main road so I grabbed Arnold and hid behind a bush. Once the car passed, I set off again at a sprint. (Arnold kept up easily thanks to her four legs.)

  We kept running until we were out of the suburban area and drawing closer to the CBD. There weren’t many people out on the street since it was dark and the shops were shut. At least I knew where I was heading now – the penthouse of a nearby apartment block. I followed another person through the door to the building. The stranger took one glance at me with my bloodied face, pyjamas, bare feet and pet pig and hurried away, which I thought was a bit rude. I mean sure, I probably looked insane, but I was clearly injured and he hadn’t even asked if I was alright.

  He’d run over to the elevators to try and get away, but despite his frenzied pressing of the button, he was still waiting there when I limped over next to him. My feet were sore and bleeding slightly from the run here, and now that the adrenalin was ebbing away, I was beginning to feel the pain. I stood uncomfortably close to the man and breathed loudly to get him back for not trying to help me. When we got into the lift, I got out on his floor and pretended to follow him to his door just to freak him out.

  Once he’d slammed his door shut behind him, I headed for the staircase and Arnold and I made our way up the next two flights to the top floor. (Without a security card, I wasn’t able to use the elevator.) I walked over to the apartment door and knocked. After a couple of moments, it opened and Adam stood before me. He looked from me to Arnold and then back at me.

  “Hello, Charlie,” he said. “Come in.”

  He stepped back to let me past. I walked in and found Harry, Eli and a woman I assumed was Adam’s mother sitting around the dining table, midway through dinner. Adam slipped past me and went to the kitchen.

  “Hi Charlie,” said Eli. “That outfit is on point.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’ve got something on your face, though.”

  “Yeah, I think it’s a broken nose.”

  He nodded. “That could be it.”

  “You two know each other?” Harry said.

  Eli and I nodded.

  “I didn’t break into anyone’s house,” I said, fooling everyone. Obviously.

  There was a moment of silence before Eli spoke.

  “We bumped into each other the other day,” he explained. “She said she didn’t want to bother me, but she just had to tell me how much more attractive I am than my brother.”

  “Sure she did,” said Adam, returning to the room with medical supplies. He tipped his head towards the lounge room. “Come and sit dow
n for me and I’ll take a look at you.”

  I nodded. “Thanks,” I said. I turned back to the woman at the table. “I’m Charlie, by the way.”

  “Mary,” she replied. “My apologies – these boys have terrible manners. Are you OK?”

  “Yes, thank you,” I lied.

  “Charlie,” Adam called, gesturing for me to follow him.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Mary.”

  I limped after him, avoiding his rug seeing as I was leaving a trail of blood wherever I trod. Arnold wandered along behind me. When I sat on the lounge, Arnold rubbed herself against Adam’s leg. (She’d always liked him.) He laughed as he put on his rubber gloves. “You OK there, Arnold?”

  “If you need someone to look after the pig, I’m happy to volunteer,” called Eli from the other room.

  “Thanks, buddy,” Adam called out. “I think she’ll be alright in here, though.”

  He sat on the edge of the seat next to me and examined my face first.

  “It’s not actually broken,” he said. “You’re going to have a couple of black eyes, but apart from that your face will look pretty normal tomorrow.”

  I shrugged. “I look more normal with facial injuries than without,” I said.

  Adam laughed and I realised what that had sounded like.

  “I meant because I get hit in the face so often, not because my face normally looks weird,” I said grumpily.

  “I know,” he said, still smiling. “We’ll clean up that blood in a second and you’ll be as good as new – well, as good as you.”

  I rolled my eyes at him, but I was smiling a little.

  “Now let’s have a look at these feet,” he said, kneeling down on the ground.

  “Kinky,” I replied.

  He smiled and got to work. After a while he said, “Want to tell me what happened?” My heart sped up as I remembered Elliot. I guess my discomfort must have shown on my face because Adam continued gently, “You don’t have to tell me. It’s alright. You’re safe here.”

  I nodded. “Sorry,” I said. “I – I just – it was a bit scary.” After taking a deep breath, I continued. “It was Elliot.”